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The Coming of the Maori

7 — Canoes

page 199

7
Canoes

The vessels used by the polynesians in their voyages are usually held to have been double canoes but single-outrigger canoes were also used. The double canoes consisted of two distinct hulls lashed a little distance apart with cross-booms (kiato) upon which a deck was laid. A deck house was also built to give protection against rain and sun (Fig. 43a). The single-outrigger canoes consisted of one hull with an outrigger on the port side (Fig. 43b). The outrigger was a composite structure consisting of cross-booms (kiato) lashed to both sides of the hull at one end and to a float (ama) at the other, either directly by bent booms, as in Hawaii or indirectly by connecting stanchions (tiatia) to straight booms, as in central Polynesia. The terms kiato for booms and ama for float are universal throughout Polynesia but the terms for connecting stanchions vary, tiatia being the central Polynesian term. The Polynesians were more exact in the use of technical terms than we are in English and as the outrigger was never an entity in their technique, they had no need for a general term to describe the outrigger as a whole. In the construction of the outrigger, the cross-booms had to be lashed to both sides of the hull, the float placed in position at the correct distance below the straight booms, the connecting stanchions carefully pegged into the float in the correct positions and the correct angles, and finally lashed to the booms to maintain the correct distance between the float and booms. The canoe was then tested in the water to see that it floated with the right balance and any further adjustments with regard to altering the vertical distance between the booms and the float were made before the canoe was passed as ready for use. The single-outrigger canoe was the type used throughout Polynesia for general purposes and there is no authentic evidence that the Polynesians ever used an outrigger float on each side of the hull to form double-outrigger canoes such as were used in parts of Indonesia.

page 200

Maori Voyaging Canoes

With this Polynesian background, the account of Takitimu canoe by Te Matorohanga (81, p. 205) may be considered because it purports to be a description of a canoe built in Hawaiki in approximately 1350 A.D. In this description the use of the term korewa creates considerable confusion. If the school of Te Matorohanga used it to denote an outrigger in general
Fig. 43. Polynesian canoes.a, double canoe, Tonga (Hornell after Cook, 51a, fig. 192); b, outrigger canoe, Mitiaro, Cook Islands.

Fig. 43. Polynesian canoes.
a, double canoe, Tonga (Hornell after Cook, 51a, fig. 192); b, outrigger canoe, Mitiaro, Cook Islands.

as Best (17, p. 269) thought likely from the native text, the statements connected with it lead to some extraordinary implications. In the building of the canoe in Hawaiki, a single hull is describea as being made with two end pieces (haumi), one being joined to each end of the hull by blunt joins (haumi tuporo). The statement follows that outriggers (nga korewa) were attached, evidently to each side of the hull, at sea when it was known that a gale was approaching. This implies that the Takitimu set out from Hawaiki as a single canoe without any attached outrigger. She, however, carried two sets of booms, floats, and connecting stanchions page 201as extra parts. Then when an approaching storm was indicated, the cross-booms were lashed to each side of the hull, and the floats were attached to the outer ends of the booms with the connecting stanchions by men perched on the booms or swimming in the sea. Or maybe the floats were lashed to the booms first and then thrust out before the inner ends of the booms were lashed to the hull. The picture of a single canoe leaving Hawaiki on a long sea voyage and then being converted into a double-outrigger canoe at sea before an approaching storm outrages every principle of Polynesian canoe-building technique and is not only unconvincing but absurd on three counts: the single canoe, the double outrigger, and the attachment of the outrigger at sea. It is exceedingly strange that so many details as to the proper names of the various parts of the canoe equipment should have been handed down, supposedly from the period when the Takitimu left Hawaiki, and yet that the common names of kiato and ama for the booms and the float should be forgotten and strange names such as korere and korewa should have been introduced into Polynesian canoe-building technique. These new terms appear to have been coined by the Matorohanga school to describe a structure conjured up by the imagination to replace a picture that time had effaced and that memory could not recall.

The other narratives of the voyaging canoes did not attempt any description of the type of vessel though the reference to a house on Te Arawa might be regarded as an argument in favour of that vessel being a double canoe. Another uncertain piece of evidence is the belief that two stone posts at Kawhia were set up at the ends of the Tainui canoe and thus indicate a length of 70 feet. In spite of the lack of details, it may be safely assumed that the voyaging vessels which brought the three waves of settlers to New Zealand were either double canoes or single-outrigger canoes or perhaps both.

Maori Canoes

Double canoes were seen by Tasman in 1642 at Golden Bay on the Nelson coast and he had reason to remember them for they attacked one of his boats and inflicted casualties. It may be that the older type of vessel survived longer in the South Island but Cook saw a few off the North Island over a century later. Double canoes were stated by Maori informants to have been used occasionally on the East Coast for paying out large seine nets but these were usually single canoes lashed together temporarily for a particular occasion. By the time of European setdement, the double canoe as an individual form of craft had been given up.

The single-outrigger canoe was also seen by Cook but he gives no details about it or the double canoe. The survival of the term ama-tiatia (outrigger float with stanchions) and the discovery in Monck's Cave in page 202Canterbury of an outrigger float with holes for stanchions prove that the outrigger canoes followed the central Polynesian technique of the indirect method of attaching the float to straight booms by means of intermediate stanchions. However, the outrigger canoe had also disappeared by the time of European settlement.

The relics of Polynesian canoe architecture thus lingered on until towards the end of the 18th century and then were completely replaced by the single hull. The only other part in Polynesia where the single hull was used in one type of canoe was Samoa. Here, however, the first two single canoes termed taumualua were made in 1849 by an American boat-builder named Eli Jennings on the order of Samoans on Upolu who
Fig. 44. Maori canoes.a, river canoe, Whanganui (field photo); b, sea-going canoe (Best, 17, fig. 78).

Fig. 44. Maori canoes.
a, river canoe, Whanganui (field photo); b, sea-going canoe (Best, 17, fig. 78).

wanted a vessel like the longboat of H.M.S. Calypso. The longboat with a few marines had blockaded Malietoa in his stronghold at Mulinu'u promontory near Apia because of his ill treatment of British subjects resident in Samoa at the time. Once they obtained models, the Samoans built the type with home-made planks lashed with sennit. Later generations, who knew not of Eli Jennings, maintained that the taumualua single canoes were a Samoan invention because of the Samoan technique of lashing the planks together.

The Maori single canoe, unlike the Samoan, was a purely native development, due probably to the abundance of large trees which provided hulls wide enough to diminish the risk of capsizing, and the outrigger was finally dispensed with as unnecessary. The hull, however, followed the central Polynesian pattern in having rounded bottoms, long sloping page 203bows, and deeper, rounded sterns. In the medium-sized and large canoes, the central Polynesian pattern of a low bow and a raised stern piece was also retained. The construction of the single canoes from the selection and felling of the trees in the forest to the launching of the completed vessel has been described in detail by Best in his authoritative work on canoes. He classified the single canoes (17, p. 6) into three groups according to their size and function.

River canoes (waka tiwai), also used on inland lakes, consisted merely of the dug-out hull (Fig. 44a).

Fig. 45. Hull joins.a, blunt join; b, c, mortice and tenon joins (after Best, 17, figs. 32, 33).

Fig. 45. Hull joins.
a, blunt join; b, c, mortice and tenon joins (after Best, 17, figs. 32, 33).

Seagoing canoes (waka tete) for sea fishing or travel along the coast were larger and up to about 46 feet in length. Provision for rough water was made by the attachment of gunwale strakes (rauawa) to the upper edge of the hull to give greater freeboard. The seams between the gunwale strake and the hull were covered by outer and inner battens. A bow piece (tauihu) carved with a grotesque head with a protruding tongue projected forward and an upright transverse washboard across the aft end of the bow piece was formed with the one piece of timber. The wash-page 204board turned off the water which was shipped over the bow. The stern was fitted with an upright stern piece (taurapa), which was usually uncarved (Fig. 44b).

War canoes (waka taua) were the masterpieces of the builder's craft. They were 70 feet and more in length and stood out not only in size but in the elaborate carving lavished upon the various parts. They were made from the magnificent trunks of the totara, and in the north from the kauri pine. They were formed of a long middle hull section and shorter bow and stern sections termed haumi. Both bow and stern sections were joined to the hull sections by mortice and tenon joins (haumi kokomo), the tenon being on the hull section (Fig. 45b, c). This was a great advance on the straight butt join (haumi tuporo) which prevailed throughout Polynesia (Fig. 45a) with the exception of the Marquesas where the mortice and tenon join was also present. The end pieces not only increased the length of the canoe but they also continued the upward sweep of the bow and stern and thus added to the graceful lines of the hull. The bow piece (tauihu) was made large enough to have a full human figure as a figurehead instead of the bodiless head of the fishing canoes. Between the upright head of the figurehead and the washboard, a median panel was carved with beautiful double spirals. In the north Auckland area, a longitudinal slab set on edge extended forward from the washboard and it was neatly carved with an intricate pattern. The sternpiece was increased in height and compressed from side to side to form another panel upon which the carver displayed his art in smaller double spirals and other carving motifs. The carved bow pieces and stern pieces of war canoes are among the best executed specimens of Maori carving. Carving was also extended to the gunwale strakes (rauawa) and sometimes to the thwarts (taumanu) as well. An artistic pattern was painted in red and black on the bow section of the hull. Streamers of feathers floated from the stern piece and long ornaments projected like antennae from the bow. White albatross feathers were fixed by their quills under the lashings over the batten covering the seam between gunwale strake and hull. Throughout Polynesia, and the Pacific area for that matter, the Maori war canoe reached the highest peak of craftsmanship in the use of decoration. Manned by a double row of tattooed warriors with their paddles flashing in perfect time to the canoe chants of a leader standing amidship with a quivering jade club, the speeding war canoe must have offered an inspiring yet awesome sight. See Plate XVI.

Canoe Equipment

The Maori paddles (hoe) differed somewhat from those of central Polynesia in having a long and narrow pointed blade which joined the shaft at an even slope on each side without any marked shoulder. Usually, how-page 205ever, the shaft had a slight forward curve at the blade junction which gave it a graceful appearance in side view. The upper end of the shaft was usually knobbed (Fig. 46). They averaged about five feet in length but the steering paddles (hoe urungi) were larger and longer with the upper end of the shaft carved, usually with the beak-headed manaia motif. Some paddles were carved or painted on the blade and they were used by the fugleman to mark time to the canoe chants. Steering paddles of famous canoes were given personal names, those of the Aotea being named Te Rokuowhiti and Kautukiterangi.

The sails (ra) were usually plaited from flax or kiekie leaves but according to Best (17, p. 182), kutakuta (Scirpus lacustris) was sometimes used and also raupo (Typha an gustifolia) by a lacing process termed nati (17, p. 184). They were triangular in shape and the only surviving specimen is in the British Museum. This was described by Firth (41) with good line drawings of the technical details. It is 14 feet 6 inches long, 6 feet 4 inches wide at the base, and 12 inches wide at the apex. The
Fig. 46. Paddle.a, front; b, side view.

Fig. 46. Paddle.
a, front; b, side view.

material is flax, plaited in check with narrow strips ranging from 10 to 13 to the inch. A zigzag, decorative pattern which from illustrations appeared to be due to coloured wefts, was shown by Firth to be formed by open work in the plaiting. The sail contains 13 segments (papa) which run horizontally and it is evident that each segment was added in the orthodox Maori technique of adding new wefts at each join in the continuous process of plaiting mats (Fig. 47a). Best (17, p. 185) states that "the whole sail was not made in one piece, but in several widths, called papa, which were afterwards joined together, just as seen in large native-made mats." In Samoa (95, p. 411), the sails were plaited in separate sections which were afterwards overlapped at their edges and sewn together with a separate cord but this technique does not apply to the British Museum sail nor to the large native-made mats to which Best referred. From the British Museum type sail, it may be said that Maori sails were made in one piece whereas sails made in Samoa and other islands were made of separate sections which were sewn together.

The side edges of the sail were folded back over a stout cord or bolt-rope and the fold fixed by two rows of sewing (41, Fig. 4). The outer page 206row of sewing made spaced turns around the outer edge of the sail and thus passed around the bolt-rope. Twelve served loops with seized eyes were spaced along each side of the sail and fixed by the outer sewing cord passing through the eyes as it passed around the outer edge of the plaiting. A long cord was attached to the topmost loop on each side, evidently for lashing the side loops to spars. The upper and lower borders of the sail were finished off in serrated edges and bunches of split pigeon and hawk feathers were attached to the upper border for decoration. A plaited streamer, 3 feet 6 inches long and 9 inches wide, was attached to the aft side near the upper wide end. The method of fixing the bolt-rope is similar to the Samoan technique but spaced strings attached to the sides were used for lashing to the spars. The side loops seem to be a local development in New Zealand.

Fig. 47. Canoe sail.a, British Mus. (after Firth, 41); b, set sail (after Best from D'Urville, 17, fig. 133, abridged).

Fig. 47. Canoe sail.
a, British Mus. (after Firth, 41); b, set sail (after Best from D'Urville, 17, fig. 133, abridged).

The triangular sails were rigged in two ways, vertical and slanting. In the vertical rig (17, p. 183), the sail was attached permanently to a mast and a sprit. The mast was stepped in a grommet made of a rope ring seized with a small cord and lashed to the side of a thwart. The vertical mast was steadied by a shroud on each side fastened to the mast thwart and a forestay and backstay attached to thwarts (Fig. 47b). The sprit was attached to the mast just above the thwart by a loose rope ring to allow it to move. A rope or sheet was tied to the sprit to manoeuvre the sail. In lowering sail, the sail was furled, the sprit tied to the mast, the braces released, the mast unshipped, and the whole laid along the middle of the thwarts. In raising sail, the mast was stepped and stayed, the sail unfurled, page 207and the sheet held. When a single sail was used, the mast was shipped near the middle of the canoe. Sometimes two and even three sails were used.

The slanting rig, termed ra kaupapara (17, p. 184), was evidently a true lateen sail. The triangular sail was attached to an upper spar or yard and to a lower boom. A short mast was stepped in a mast step made on the bottom of the hold and it supported the sail with the apex down at the bow, the sail making a low angle with the canoe hull. No details are available as to how the yard was stepped at the bow or how it was attached to the mast.

The lateen sail is characteristic of Micronesia, Fiji and western Polynesia but it cropped up in Mangareva. In the other parts of Polynesia, the vertical rig or oceanic sprit sail was in use. New Zealand is peculiar in
Fig. 48. Canoe bailers.a, carved (Bishop Mus., no. 1472); b, abnormal handle (Auckland Mus.).

Fig. 48. Canoe bailers.
a, carved (Bishop Mus., no. 1472); b, abnormal handle (Auckland Mus.).

having had both rigs but evidently the vertical rig was general and the lateen sail an intrusion that does not seem to be well vouched for.

The bailers (tata) followed the Polynesian pattern with a median handle projecting forward from the posterior rim. The large bailers for war canoes had a wide posterior rim which was carved to represent a human head on the flat (Fig. 48a). An inferior type was made with the handle projecting backward (Fig. 48b). The bailers of important canoes were also given personal names, that of the god Rehua being Tatataeore. From the carving and the general lines, the bailers were works of art with which there was nothing comparable in Polynesia.

Stone anchors (punga) were of various forms, from some ordinary stones enclosed in a net to large shaped rocks perforated with a drilled hole for the anchor rope (Fig. 49a). Some old anchors were believed to have been brought in certain of the historic canoes. The anchor attributed page 208to the Matahorua canoe is now in the Dominion Museum, that of Tokomaru (Fig. 49b) is in the New Plymouth Museum and the dumbbell-shaped anchor of Tainui, formerly partly submerged in the Mokau River (Fig. 49c), now rests on a chiefly grave in the Awakino Maori cemetery. Geologists of little faith would probably find that these historic anchors were made of local stone.

The Fallacy of Plank Canoes

The Maori technique of dubbing canoe hulls out of solid tree trunks was basically Polynesian but was affected by the unlimited supply of large trees. The main local developments were the single hull without out-rigger, the mortice and tenon join of the bow and stern sections of the hull and the elaboration in decoration due to the high development of schools of carving. Criticism has been levelled at Maori craftsmanship for
Fig. 49. Canoe anchors.a, normal type (Dominion Mus.); b, Tokomaru anchor (New Plymouth Mus.); c, Tainui anchor, partly submerged.

Fig. 49. Canoe anchors.
a, normal type (Dominion Mus.); b, Tokomaru anchor (New Plymouth Mus.); c, Tainui anchor, partly submerged.

not having constructed canoe hulls with split planks and the inference has been made that the ancestors of the Maori moved out of central Polynesia before a higher culture, which included plank voyaging canoes, moved in. I am of the opinion that an exaggerated and erroneous value has been placed on the plank canoe as a criterion of culture. The use of planks for canoe construction in a stone age culture was largely a matter of necessity due to a limited supply of trees with large trunks. For small canoes, the tree trunks were large enough to provide a dug-out hull but it had to be balanced by an outrigger. When the tree trunks were not large enough to provide a complete dug-out hull, the canoe builders were forced to split planks and lash them on in tiers to increase both the depth and the beam of the hull. In atolls where the supply of small trees was very limited, the question of economy of material played a decisive part. Even for small canoes, the dubbing out of a hull would have been a criminal waste of material and so the canoe builders made the most of their limited resources by splitting the logs into planks and made even page 209their small fishing canoes of planks. The plank canoes of the Tuamotu Archipelago were not due to diffusion from a higher culture but to economic necessity due to limited raw material. The Samoan bonito canoe was made of thin planks for lightness and speed in keeping up with moving schools of bonito and their taumualua, as already stated, was a late copy of the English longboat. For the other types of canoes, the Samoans used the dug-out hull. The Maori split logs for their store-houses and meeting houses because the style of building required it but to split large tree trunks for canoes when there was no economic necessity was surely too much to expect from an intelligent people.

The Passing of the Canoes

In olden days, canoes were a necessity. The war canoes transported war parties on expeditions along the coast, up and down the larger rivers, and across lakes, thereby saving tedious journeys on foot. The fishing canoes were used for line fishing on the established grounds, hauling seine nets, trolling for kahawai, and setting crayfish pots. The river canoes took the place of bridges and people were able to cultivate the fertile flats on the opposite side of the river. In Polynesia, women did not use canoes but in New Zealand, women paddled the family canoes across the river to attend to the weeding of cultivations and gathering such things as the woods provided. Small canoes were used to set traps and haul nets in lakes and rivers and for transport to nearby villages situated on a common water-way. Without canoes, Maori culture could not have reached the rounded fullness that it did.

The growth of western culture did away with the canoe as a necessity. The acceptance of Christianity by warring tribes made the building of war canoes unnecessary and those that existed were converted to peaceful transport for a while and then rotted through disuse or found their way into museums. The introduction of beef, mutton, and pork and the changes in occupation led to less need and time for fishing and the seagoing fishing canoes also ceased to be made. The construction of roads and bridges throughout the country and the availability of horses and horse-drawn vehicles reduced the value of the canoe as a means of transport. Canoes survived longer on the larger rivers and inland lakes but the advent of river and lake steamers steadily diminished the number of those who had hitherto travelled by canoe.

The people of the up-river tribes on the Whanganui were noted canoe men and thought nothing of paddling many miles down stream to visit the town of Whanganui and poling back home against the current. However, the establishment of a regular service by river steamer came to pass and the descendants of canoe men soon found that paying a steamer fare was preferable to the arduous paddling and poling in which their parents page 210had once taken pride. On the Waikato River, the institution of an annual regatta at Ngaruawahia, with canoe races forming the main attraction, helped to perpetuate the life of the canoe in that district. Though the regatta was abandoned during World War II, its subsequent revival necessitated the building of new canoes by a younger generation to replace the old canoes which had fallen into decay. Hence it is likely that the canoe will make its last stand on the Waikato River.

It was inevitable that as the canoe ceased to be a necessity in the changing life of the people, its production should also decrease until it reached the stage when the skilled canoe builders had no further call for their work. The craftsmen laid aside their steel-bladed adzes or turned them to more gainful use. The direct transmission of craftsmanship was broken, for the experts had no heart or incentive to teach their children a dead craft. After all its wonderful record in conquering the great expanse of ocean from the coast of Asia to the uttermost isles of the Pacific, the canoe is fast becoming a historical memory in New Zealand. Even so, the memory is worth cherishing.